Once Yours, Now Mine
by TheFairyOfShadows
Summary: when Ino was a little girl, she stole something precious from them. It wasn't her choice, she didn't even know it happened. And now she must live though it, with non the wiser. (Inspired by Krizzlybear's "Perspective")
1. Ch1 An Accident

Ch.1 An Accident

A five year old Ino yawned as the sun slowly began to rise from its slumber. Her short blonde hair fell in disarray around her face as she grinned, her small body trembling in excitement. It wasn't the first time she had snuck out of the house at the crack of dawn, but it still gave her that adventurous thrill every time.

Running as quietly as her little legs allowed, she grinned happily as she snuck through Konoha's civilian district. A few venders lined the streets here and there, but most of Konoha was still sound asleep, much to the child's relief. Ino could never understand why so many people hated getting up in the morning; she loved the wide empty space, free of the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

To her, the adventures always started at the crack of dawn, and ended as soon as her father got out of bed. The wide vast meadows full of life and excitement had a mysterious aura that the little girl couldn't resist. The soft sway of the flowers, the sweet rhythmic hum of the butterflies, all of which seemed to disappear the moment the rest of Konoha awoke from its slumber. So here she was, sneaking through the quiet streets at 1 o'clock in the morning.

Most children would have gotten lost weaving through the vast maze of buildings, but after relentless hours of exploration she knew the village paths like the back of her hand. Her small feet tapped lightly along the path as she ran, her small form trembled with giddy anticipation as she approached the giant forest that surrounded her hidden village. It was this wall of trees that separated her normal everyday life and the adventures that called her.

Ino look out at the broad woods of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The tall ancient trees gave off an air of wisdom that she yearned to understand, and the soft quiet wind told stories of old that called to her in ways that she could not resist.

The little girl happily pranced about the forest as she made her way through the trees. In this magical forest, she doesn't have to worry about her aunt's disappointed looks, or getting mud on her clothes and messing up her hair. In this magical place, full of mystery and wonder, she only has to worry about the height of the sun.

Or so she thought.

If the young girl was more observant, she would have noticed that her beautiful forest, full of light and life, felt different from usual. The flowers that would always dance and smile at her presence were oddly still and void of emotion. The bugs and butterflies that usually filled the air with their lovely colors had disappeared, leaving an uncomfortable and empty feeling in the air. The wind and its gentle songs were oddly silent, even the trees seem to have turned to stone.

The once peaceful and happy place now carried an ominous aura. But Ino easily overlooked these changes and turned her focus to more important matters, such as finding some flowers to bring back home. The valley was full of her father's favorite flowers: bright purple tulips!

As Ino continued her flower hunting, a small dark purple insect flew across her path wavering to and fro in a seemingly random direction.

How odd, she had never seen that bug before. Ino had long since thought she knew all the insects in this wood, how had this one managed to escape her notice? Is it lost she wondered, it looked like it knew where it was going. Curious, the little girl put down her flowers and followed the little thing. Making sure to keep her distance, Ino went after the little thing, and it wasn't long before they reached its destination.

At first she wasn't sure what she was looking at, but whatever it was, it smelled awful. After a few moments of childish hesitation, Ino slowly approached the smelly thing.

To say she was surprised was an understatement.

A man, no more than her father's age, was lying face down on the forest floor. A large jacket hid most of the man's features, and what parts of him she could see were deathly pale. Only the Hitia-ate on the sleeve of his jacket gave any indication of what he was.

But why on earth was he sleeping in a place like this? The little girl stared at the man, as if her eyes alone could will him into waking up. Unfortunately, Ino was no Uchiha, so after a few more moments of contemplation (and staring); Ino decided that the best thing to do would be to wake the man up. It was only polite after all, even if he did look a bit scary (and smelled really bad).

But a couple of nudges and gentle taps later the man was still nowhere near consciousness, and Ino was beginning to worry that he wasn't just taking a nap. Why wouldn't he wake up?

"Hello?" She asked in a small, lightly pitched voice.

"Are you alright mister?" She tried again, but silence was her only answer and that awful stench was beginning to make her sick.

It was then that she noticed it: a gentle red that seemed to outline the man's form. It was sticky, it smelled weird. _It was blood_.

This was not good. This man needed help.

 _Now_.

With a determined expression too cute to actually be taken seriously, Ino began to shake his shoulders once more. She had to wake him up, he needed help and there was no way she could carry him back to the village and definitely now way she would be able to find her way back. He still wasn't moving and she desperately began to shake the man harder and harder.

It was an accident. She didn't mean to do it, didn't even realize she did it, but in her panicked desperation to help the man, she unconsciously shoved a small amount of her own chakra into him.

She didn't notice, but something else did.

One by one, tiny black insects came out of the man's coat, and it was only when one of them landed on her arm that she noticed. It was the same one that she had seen earlier; the one that had led her to the man. She had completely forgotten about it. The little thing stared at her for a good while before it seemed to come to a decision. It waved its little antenna's at her in greeting, and proceeded to sick its fangs into her.

Ino stared at the bleeding whole in her arm, her mind unable to understand what had just occurred, but the sudden excruciating pain quickly replaced her shock. Her arm burned as if it was on fire, the tingling feeling under her skin slowly began to spread making the burning feeling even worse. The sudden pain in her legs made her look away from her arm, only to see that more of the tiny insects had landed on her. And slowly they to only left behind burning red dots.

She stared at the bloody dots on her legs with terror and did what any normal child would have done long ago. She screamed. Running away as fast as her small, pain filled legs could take her.

Another dot on her arm, another on her face, more on her legs, her back, her stomach, all followed by the same excruciating, mind numbing pain, and the world started to fade away.

XxX

Five minutes. All it took was five minutes of slacking off for something to go wrong. Why did it always have to be her? Why couldn't anyone give her a break? Shoko Nara dozed off for five minutes and there's already a commotion. Damn her karma.

The shadow ninja sped through the trees towards the scream she had heard less than a moment ago. Combined with that major chakra spike that just so happened to come from the same direction, she knew something was going on. The lazy Nara just hoped she wasn't too late.

And that her backup arrived soon.

When she finally reached the clearing, the ninja quickly wished she hadn't. Insect corpses were spewed about everywhere, and from what she could tell, it looked like they were attacking each other.

At least, that what she told herself it looked like, because the alternative was not something she wanted to think about.

'Well, this is disturbing…" she muttered to herself as she took in the carnage.

Her eyes slowly wondered over the rest of the area, her eyes quickly scanning the field for any signs of struggle. But to her further confusion, aside from the insects, the only thing she could see was a corpse and small signs of blood scattered across the seemingly innocent field.

Within seconds Shoko dropped down beside the corpse. An Aburame from the looks of him, but what on earth was he doing here? She had seen him before, Shiki Aburame if she remembered correctly. He was supposed to be on a mission. So why was he here? He was covered in sweat and open wounds, with small holes littered about his prone form, creating a small halo of blood.

From what she could see, all the signs pointed to poison. There was no way those cuts could have killed him. But why the insect massacre? Did he order them to attack each other? No, she may not have known him well, by Shoko knew he loved his bugs too much to do something like this to them…

Another form silently landed next to the Nara kunoichi, a mix of worry and confusion on his face.

"Did you find anything else?" She asked the newcomer quietly, hoping that her partner had somehow managed to find something that made sense.

"Yeah... A kid, covered in insect bites, the Yamanaka heiress if I'm not mistaken. Inoki is taking her to the hospital as we speak, and Izumi and Kotetsu are on their way." He said in a grave but equally quiet voice.

Shoko lifted an eyebrow at that. What's the clan head's child doing out in the forest? She slowly let out a long soft sigh. Why did this have to happen on her watch?

"Alright, you stay here and wait for them, check and see if there's anything else you can dig up. I need to make a visit." She final said, resigned to her fate.

She liked the Aburame's. She really did. But sometimes, it was really hard to deal with them. In fact, Shiki was probably one of the easiest guys to talk to, and know she had to go and deliver the news. Yep, not looking forward to it.

Then there was the girl, too be honest Shoko didn't really want to trade places with Inoki either. Having your clan leader demanding why their child is dying on your watch isn't something anyone would volunteer for.

Aburame clan it is then.

"Good luck" was her partner's cheeky response.

His expression already telling her he knew what was going through her head. He knew exactly what she was about to go through, and was all too happy to stay behind and let her deal with it all. Traitor. Giving the Akamichi a wry grin, Shoko shrugged her shoulders and leapt into the trees, and began to make her way to back to the village.

The trees eventually gave way, and Shoko easily jumped over the great walls of Konoha, slowly making her way to the Western side. The sun was still young, and Konoha was just beginning to come to life. Venders were setting up their shops, mothers out shopping for groceries before the lunch crowd, all of them smiling and ready for another day.

Such a beautiful day, and it was already coated with death. Shoko slowed her pace as she grew closer to the Aburame clan grounds.

Bamboo walls lined the entire perimeter. Their dark undecorated wood was only broken up by the bamboo door that seemed to always be shut no matter the time of day. Now, the bamboo walls looked more intimidating as ever, almost as if they knew why she was here.

Which was entirely possible.

Shoko must have stood there for a good 10 minutes before the large bamboo gate finally acknowledged her presence and the eyes of Shibi Aburame stared down at her through tinted glasses, along with a few other members of his clan.

"Good morning Nara-san, is there something you need?" the clan head spoke, his passive voice held the slightest hint of agitation. She was probably interrupting something. Wonderful.

"Well… you see Aburame-sama…"

XxX

Word count: 2,415

Updated: 1/24/17

Hey guys!

So in case any of you are wondering, yes, this is going to be a ShinoxIno fanfiction. I'm assuming that's why you're reading this to begin with.

I'm going to try to go slow with this story, I want it to be a slow burn, but at certain points I might just go ahead and skip a year or so, just because I have no idea how to fill the gap. There may be other perspectives here and there (like with Shoko), but this story is mostly going to be Ino centric as far as I can tell.

I always hated the way Ino was treated throughout the anime, for no reason what so ever. She's a clan heiress for crying out loud, and a (secondary) apprentice to Tsunade! Yet she is always portrayed as being the weakest link. She lost he concentration while sealing the Sanbi (which is ridiculous because her clan technique's soul requirement is mental focus and fortitude), she seems to have no chakra reserves at all, and she is always the first one to stumble or be incapacitated in a fight, not to mention for some reason her medical skills always seem to be mediocre at best.

I'm just saying that's a little harsh (and unrealistic), so these insects are gonna play a huge role when it comes to her own abilities, and make those faults just a little more realistic.

WARNING: my motivation for writing is very sporadic, if you want this story updated, then review it. Otherwise you might be waiting a very long time.

 **The concept for this was inspired by Krizzlybear's fic "Perspective" which I highly recommend!**


	2. Ch2 Coming Home

Ch.2 Coming Home

" _Good morning Nara-san, is there something you need?"_

" _Well… you see Aburame-sama…"_

XxX

The arrival of the Nara had left the Aburame compound in complete chaos.

"This is terrible…"

"What are we going to do?"

"I can't believe this. Are you certain there's nothing left?

"No, nothing. They are gone."

"We never should have let him leave"

"Don't be ridiculous; we couldn't have kept him here if we tried"

"… I know"

The voices of his clan continued to flow through the room, hushed and quiet. Something and someone precious had been lost, and now they grieved for both. It would be years before Shino truly understood why.

XxX

It hurt. Everything hurt. Each movement brought forth a new wave of pain. Ino had long since stopped careering about anything else. Shadows moved to and fro across her blurry vision, but it hurt too much to think about what they were, or to think at all for that matter. Her entire body felt like it was on fire, and every sensation she could make out only intensified the burning pain. The noise, the light, all of it only made the hurt worse.

Eventually it began to fade, eventually she fell into merciful slumber.

XxX

White tiled ceiling greeted her eyes, and it took a moment or two for Ino to realize that she was in a hospital. There were Machines and wires surrounding her little bed, all labeled with complicated words and numbers she did not know. Ino wasn't how long she listened to the machines rhythmic noises, but eventually someone must have noticed her state of consciousness because the next thing she knew, Daddy was breaking down the door.

"Ino! Thank goodness you're okay!" the blonde man ran towards her, grasping her small hands with his much larger ones.

"…Daddy?" Ino finally answered, feeling very confused. Why did he break the door again?

"Ahem, Yamanaka-san may I a word with outside?" a doctor asked in a pleasant voice. It almost covered the agitation that seemed to radiate off the man…

"Good luck Daddy" Ino gave him a thumbs up. The look of horror on her father's face was priceless. The doctor may or may not have chuckled, she could really tell. She also missed the look the adults exchanged.

"Yes, yes, I'm coming Yakushi-san" Daddy finally told the man, giving one finally look of mock horror, before following the man outside. Were they really going outside? That seemed an awfully long way to say a few words.

As it turned out, 'outside' meant outside the door frame, and as the two men spoke in hushed whispers, Ino wasn't able to catch much more than "chakra" "shock" and "trauma" whatever that meant. She quickly grew bored of trying to listen to the adult's conversation and instead turned her attention to more pressing matters, such as the needles attached to her arm for no reason.

To put it lightly, that did not go well, and ended up with the doctor (Yakushi-san?) giving her a very scary smile along with a verbal request to not do it again. Even Daddy was scared.

"Alright Ino-san, how are you feeling?" Yakushi-san asked, with that weird smile still on his face.

"I feel fine."

"Oh? Nothing hurts? Not even a headache?" the doctor tried again, this time he wasn't smiling.

"No sir?" why would it? Now that she thought about, why on was she in the hospital?

"… Alright," he said with an oddly concentrated look before he turned to her father "Well Yamanaka-san, she it would appear that she's just fine as far as we can tell. There seem to be no side effects whatsoever, if nothing changes for the next two days she should be free to go."

Daddy only gave the man a short nod, neither of them seemed too happy.

"Is there something wrong?" She finally demanded; this was taking far too long. But much to her confusion, the adults only gave her a grim look.

"Thank you Yakushi-san, if anything happens you'll be the first to know." Daddy spoke, but neither made a move to leave. This was so confusing, what are they talking about? Ugh, useless adults. Where is Shikamaru when you need him?

So aside from the mass confusion that was her brain for the next two days, they were able to leave the hospital without incident. The bright crowded streets seemed just like they were on any other day, with both civilians and ninja coming and going as they pleased. It didn't look like anything had happened. Did she fall down the stair again? It certainly wouldn't be the first time it's happened. But then again, Ino was fairly certain she'd remember something like that… For the past two days she'd been there, nobody would tell her what happened, or why she was in the hospital to begin with. Apparently Shikamaru and some other people did try to visit, but the medics only let daddy visit her, which she found to be a little odd. It was during this train of thought that she finally noticed they were heading in the wrong direction.

"Daddy?" Ino swore his face lit up the moment the word left her mouth.

"Yes sweetie?" he answered in an eager and much happier mood than the one he had 5 seconds ago. Daddy really is amazing, isn't he?

"Why aren't we going home?" his face fell at that.

"ah… we need to go to the Hokage's office and drop off your medical report before we can go home sweetheart." He said with a small nervous smile, and ever so slightly quickened their pace. Ino had to jog to keep up with him, did he not want to go? He doesn't he just say so?

"Okay!" she said with a smile, hoping that would make him feel a bit better. Honestly, Daddy better cheer up soon, she wouldn't know what to do with him if he didn't.

Ugh, Adults are so complicated.

Their walk to the Hokage tower didn't take too long, much to Ino's relief, and a few short minutes of waiting a quick word from Daddy to the receptionist had them walking into the Hokage's office in record time. Daddy was pretty cool like that. The tan old man behind the hokage's desk gave her a grandfatherly smile, and gestured for them to sit.

"Welcome Yamanaka-san, Ino-chan, I'm sorry you had to come all the way here. I just had a few things I would like to talk about In-chan if that's alright?" He asked as Daddy gave him a thin folder. But despite his kind smile, he looked very tired. Ino wasn't quite sure what about him gave her that impression, but she didn't like. Not one bit.

Her unlikely savior came in the form a very tall man covered from head to toe. His dark tinted glasses and upturned collar covered what little could be seen of his face. His spiky brown hair the only visible feature she could make out besides the small piece of jewelry attached to his glasses.

"Ah. Aburame-san, I wasn't expecting you to arrive so quickly-"

At some point she stopped hearing the Hokage's words, because right in front of her stood a near exact copy of _Him._ The man in forest, the one that smelled awful- _smelled like blood-_ the one that wouldn't move – _why wouldn't he wake up?-_ the one that brought the black bugs- _so many of them- so much hurt-_

 _Did this one have them too?_

"Ino Yamanaka!" The Hokage's voice cut through her mental rant, and she instinctively turned to look at him.

"Yes?" she answered, hoping, praying, that the should-be-dead-man wasn't behind her.

"Ino? Ino look at me sweetie" Daddy said in a weird sugary voice, his hands gripping her shoulders. He didn't look angry, that was always a good sign.

"What's wrong Daddy?" she asked him, but her voice sounded weird even to her. Something was wrong, something had to be wrong, otherwise this wouldn't be happening and Daddy wouldn't be looking at her like that. She had never seen her father this worried before.

"Hokage-sama can't we have this meeting later? She just got out of the hospital!" the slight ring of parental authority in her father's voice took her by surprise. But before the older shinobi could answer, another voice entered the fray.

"Ino-san," _-oh no, not him, why is he still here?-_ "I need you to tell me what happened. What happened in the forest?" the Should-be-dead-man spoke, completely ignoring the other adults in the room. What? What was he talking about? He looked so serious, why would he be asking her about the-

 _Forest_

XxX

The third Hokage could feel the oncoming migraine as he looked at the head of the Aburame clan. Shibi Aburame, if he had known the poor child would have a panic attack at the sight of him he would have had the man wait outside. Or at least stay out of her direct line of sight. Sarutobi had been a fool. Of course she wouldn't have remembered the event, it wasn't uncommon for some individuals to have temporary memory loss after a traumatizing incident. But with an entire squad missing with no leads whatsoever and the Aburame clan at his throat for the death of one of their most valuable members, Sarutobi hiruzen hadn't even thought to question why the girl was doing so well after what she'd gone through.

Of course it all started coming back to her as soon as the Aburame head stepped through the door and given her two consecutive panic attacks. It had taken a whole two hours to calm the poor thing down, and another to actually understand what she was saying. Inoichi had been, understandably, furious and had taken the girl back home as soon as she had finished her version of events. The only version they currently had, and the Aburame head was not happy about it.

"Are you certain there is nothing else Hokage-sama?" the man asked for the what felt like the one hundredth time. "If what that child said is true, there's no possible way she could have survived. Are you certain there is nothing else?"

The Hokage sighed at the slight jab, but refused to acknowledge it. Truth be told he too was curious as to how young Ino Yamanaka had survived such a devastating event. But they had nothing else to go on, and her statement clearly matched up with what they had already known. The poison used to kill Shiki Aburame was not exactly common, but it wasn't enough to help identify who the perpetrator could have been, and his teammates still haven't been found. Their hands were tied.

"No Shibi-san, I know your finding this outcome hard to except, but there is simply nothing else to go on. I am sorry for your loss." For a moment it looked as if the clan head would argue that point, but in the end Shibi gave the man a polite nod and left the old man in peace.

This matter can be pursued later after all, and right now Shibi Aburame has a funeral to attend.

XxX

Home, Inoichi thought to himself, they were finally home. His sweet, beautiful, innocent little girl was wrapped firmly in his grip as they lay in bed. Finally asleep after what felt like an eternity of tears and 'Daddy I'm scared please don't go's.

To be honest, he's not sure if he'll ever be able to forgive the Aburame, not if this keeps up. He knew what happened, or at least he had an idea, based on what he could piece together from his daughter's broken tale; It was _-probably-_ an accident; the dying man was more than likely at the point where he couldn't tell the difference between the blade of an enemy, and the hands of a child. But none the less, Inoichi doubted he'd ever be able to trust them like he used to.

XxX

Word Count: 2,266

Updated: 1-27-17

I'm back! So if this chapter is a little shorter than the first one, I really wanted this to be a long a through story but the only thing I can think about is stuff that's like, years into the future. Initially I was gonna skip this whole chapter (cause I really didn't want to write all that dialogue and drama) but then I was half way through writing the second ( now third and probably fourth) chapter when I realized it would probably be a lot easier to understand if I didn't skip this. So here you go.

Sorry if any of the characters seem a little off, especially Inoichi. To be honest I never really thought about Inoichi all that much when I originally started writing this, I was more focused on Ino and what she would be thinking. But now that I have in fact gotten this far, I can confidently say that dealing with him is gonna be a pain. I completely understand why some authors just have all the characters nod along like nothing is happening (It use to annoy me a lot when a character would just except something without question). It's a painful just to think about it.

Good luck Shino, you're gonna need it…

Thank you to everyone who followed and reviewed, you guys have no idea how happy your words made me! I was grinning so much my cheeks hurt!

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! See you in the next one!


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